Trip to Fame

Chapter 1 - The Start

My names Cleo. I have a dream.

I was born in Germany, on the 4th August 1961. I was brought up speaking English, as my dad was American and my mum was British.
I have an older sister, who when I was born was six years old. We are very close and always were. She supported my dream like no one else would.

My dream started when I was young. Very young. I was three years old, with a nine year old sister called Cathy. My parents had just gotten a divorce. My mum, sister and I were moving to Brighton, England, whilst my dad moved to California.

Both of my parents were moving because once they signed for the divorce, they were both avicted from our house. They originally planned for my mum, sister and I to stay in Germany, but once we were avicted, mum decided we should move to where she grew up. Brighton.

So on the 12th July 1964 we left for Brighton.

We knew nothing of the place, and my sister and I were all worked up and crying about leaving our dad. Our dad was a very sweet, smart, caring, funny and sensitive man. But he had to move to America anyway for work, with or without the divorce.

We cried all the way on the train journey. We went on a train to Sweden, then a short boat journey to Denmark, and then finally a flight to London. From there we had to take another train to Brighton. We did all this with just one bag of luggage each. That was all we were taking. Mum had no job, and hadn't gotten any money from the house, since they didn't sell it. All we knew was that we were moving into a two bedroomed house, with a small kitchen and a square living room. We had an old fashioned bathroom outside in the garden. It didn't sound nice.

Cathy and I had no idea what we were in for. We had never been to Brighton, let alone England. We had just grown up in Germany all our life.

We had to admit that it was nice moving into a country where people spoke out language. Cathy had only just got the hang of German and I hadn't made an effort to learn it. Cathy had gone to a French school in Germany, so he knew French and German. The lucky thing. Mum hadn't even sent in a school application for me when we lived in Germany. I was only three.

But Cathy and I thought Brighton was amazing! When we finally arrived in our new home town, Cathy and I were full of happiness. We lived right next to the beach, and there was a nice, easy and exessable market close to our house. Our house was also good. Mum hadn't told us but our house was fully equipped with furniture. Cathy and O shared a room, which wasn't bad. We shared a bunk bed, which we always wanted, and we also had beautiful purple curtains. Our bedroom walls were covered in light blue wall paper, to compliment the sea just outside our window. Mum had her own bedroom, which was the same size. The kitchen was very clean, and the living room had two sofas. We loved it!

But that wasn't it. Since it was the summer holidays in England, mum had enough time to find a job before the new year started. She also had time to find Cathy a new school, and sign me up for a nursery. But since she was busy sorting all those things out, Cathy and I were free to do what we wanted. Since our living room had a window facing the beach, mum could sit on the sofa doing work, filling in applications and things like that, while Cathy and I played on the beach. Mum could still see us through the window and check on us, and sometimes wave. It was so fun!

Cathy and I would play mermaids and learn new tricks in the water. Cathy taught me how to swim and do a cartwheel. I got very flexible after that, and I could do big jumps from rock to rock. Sometimes, when we were done on the beach, we would go into the town market and buy some groceries that mum had told us to get. If we did so, she would let us use the change on something we wanted. She didn't come with us. It was just me and Cathy.

Once we even found a poster for a fun fair! This isn't where my dream revolved, but part of it did.

On the 29th July 1964 Cathy saw an eye catching poster on a market stall leg. It was advertising a funfair. A fun fair to celebrate the last day of July, typically known as the last day of The English Summer Month. Of course, summer really consists of June, July and August, but they celebrated it all the same. Maybe it was an excuse to have a fun fair, or maybe English summer really did finish at the end of July. How we would we have known? We had always had our summers in Germany. Cathy and I hoped so badly that it wasn't the end of the summer, as we had only had two weeks to play on the beach! We had to go to the fair! It felt like it was made to welcome us to our new and true home. But first we had to ask mum. It took a lot of persuading. Luckily Cathy is very convincing. I mainly just nodded and stood with my hands on my hips, in a just-let-us-go-mum sort of way.

"Mum?" Cathy started with a sweet toned, little girl voice.
"Yes darling?" Mum answered.
"Well... You know how it's the end of the summer?"
"We still have August. Thank goodness your school doesn't begin until the start of September."
"Well, the warm, fresh, summer sun won't be here much longer. And we haven't been here very long."
"Cathy? What are you saying?"
"I'm not saying anything, I'm asking if we could all go to the summer funfair."
"Uh, Cathy... I don't know. We haven't really settled in yet."
"Come on mum! Please! We could all go! You might meet some other parents that you make friends with and I might meet some people going to my school who could help me."
"That does sound useful. But... I'll be very busy the next few days. When is it?"
"The thirtieth of July. Tomorrow."
"Oh... Oh I'm sorry darling but I have to go in for a job interview, and I can't guarantee it will be done in time. I'm sorry sweetheart."
"Well... Well me and Cleo can go."
"No! I'm not having a nine year old responsible for a three year old in a fair ground without an adult!"
"But mum! If you didn't know when your job interview was going to be done you must have been planning to leave us at home while you went out. I would've been responsible for Cleo then!"
"Yes but you can find all sorts of awful people in that fairground."
"Please mum! There will be police officers there and it is a children's fair! I doubt there'll let in adults that aren't parents. And also, there will be lots of policeman there looking out."
Mum sighed. "Oh alright! I'll give you some money to get in and I'll pack you a lunch. But Cleo you must promise to be good for Cathy. She's in charge okay? Just like on the beach. Okay?"
I replied without hesitation. "I understand! I will be as good as gold. Just like on the beach!"
"Just like on the beach." Mum said smiling, ruffling my hair.

Just like on the beach.